d so ended the barrister's first meeting with the strange tenant of
the Silent House.

CHAPTER II

SHADOWS ON THE BLIND

The landlady of Denzil was a rather uncommon specimen of the class. She
inclined to plumpness, was lively in the extreme, wore very fashionable
garments of the brightest colours, and--although somewhat elderly--still
cherished a hope that some young man would elevate her to the rank of a
matron.

At present, Miss Julia Greeb was an unwedded damsel of forty summers,
who, with the aid of art, was making desperate but ineffectual efforts
to detain the youth which was slipping from her. She pinched her waist,
dyed her hair, powdered her face, and affected juvenile dress of the
white frock and blue sash kind. In the distance she looked a girlish
twenty; close at hand various artifices aided her to pass for thirty;
and it was only in the solitude of her own room that her real age was
apparent. Never did woman wage a more resolute fight with Time than did
Miss Greeb.

But this was the worst and most frivolous side of her character, for she
was really a good-hearted, cheery little woman, with a brisk manner, and
a flow of talk unequalled in Geneva Square. She had been born in the
house she occupied, after the death of her father, and had grown up to
assist her mother in ministering to the exactions of a continuous
procession of lodgers. These came and went, married and died; but not
one of the desirable young men had borne Miss Greeb to the altar, so
that when her mother died the fair Julia almost despaired of attaining
to the dignity of wifehood. Nevertheless, she continued to keep
boarders, and to make attempts to captivate the hearts of such bachelors
as she judged weak in character.

Hitherto all her efforts had been more or less of a mercantile
character, with an eye to money; but when Lucian Denzil appeared on the
scene, the poor little woman really fell in love with his handsome face.
But, in strange contrast to her other efforts, Miss Greeb never for a
moment deemed that Lucian would marry her. He was her god, her ideal of
manhood, and to him she offered worship, and burnt incense after the
manner of her kind.

Denzil occupied a bedroom and sitting-room, both pleasant, airy
apartments, looking out on to the square. Miss Greeb attended to his
needs herself, and brought up his breakfast with her own fair hands,
happy for the day if her admired lodger conversed with her for a few
moment